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By Neha N., Grade 10
One of us is Next is the second novel in the “One of us is Lying” trilogy. This trilogy takes place in Bayview, a city in California where things always seem to go wrong. In One of us is Next, a mysterious truth or dare game arises over text, targeting students at Bayview High School. These students include teens Maeve, Phoebe, and Knox who are the three protagonists of the book. After Maeve and Phoebe both have damaging secrets leaked by the anonymous texter, it becomes clear that the safer option is to always choose dare over truth. However, when fellow student Brandon Weber dies while trying to complete a dare, Phoebe, Knox, and Maeve notice that his death may not have been as accidental as it seemed, and take it upon themselves to solve the mystery.
I enjoyed this book a lot, although it didn’t give me quite the same amount of shock as I got from reading the first book in the series. This novel had a lot to offer, like strong protagonists with personal conflicts, diverse characters from different backgrounds, and of course, an amazing and riveting plot, but I felt like it was lacking something. I think that feeling came from this book being very similar to the first one in the series. Usually, in trilogies, there are important revelations or at least some sort of change in between the first and second books. But here, there was none. It took place in the same high school, with the same concept of an anonymous gossip app, and the same type of “accidental” death. Although the plot was a very strong one to work off of, once I read it twice, a little of the joy was sucked away. That being said, there were still subtle differences between this book and the first one. For example, in this book we got to see how the characters from book one were doing. I thought it was a nice touch to make Knox, a protagonist, an intern at the nonprofit law firm that had helped the original cast from book one solve their mystery. Little things like that kept me enjoying the book, and definitely softened the blow of the plot being very similar.
Overall, this book had an exceptionally strong plot with strong characters and an enjoyable setting. My only critique for this book was that it was very similar to book one, so I’d award it 4.5 stars.
One of us is Back takes place only a couple months after the conclusion of One of Us is Next. In this finale to the One of us is Lying trilogy, we view Bayview through the eyes of characters from both the first and second books. By strategically setting this book during summer break, author Karen McManus is able to finally reunite the original cast of characters (some of whom are in college far away from Bayview) and the newer cast of the second book, who are still students at Bayview high school. During this book, one of the main villains from book one, Jake, is released from jail. Although he is given a restraining order, he’s still allowed to traverse almost the whole town of Bayview. When mysterious injuries start popping up around town and Jake mysteriously disappears, the Bayview Crew realizes they may have another mystery to solve.
I can say confidently that this book was much better than book two. I think my main issue with book two was that although I liked the characters a lot, I felt like even characters as interesting as them couldn’t really compensate enough for a plot so similar to book one. However, in this book, the characters from both book two and book one were more deeply explored, and in the context of a more original plot that tied up a lot of loose ends from the first books. Because of this, it didn’t feel boring returning to protagonists I already knew, because I got the new experience of seeing them react to different situations. This book didn’t include all seven perspectives, of course, and I think McManus did an amazing job of choosing the cream of the crop to feature again–I also liked that she gave us some balance, featuring two characters from book one and one from book two. I felt like the protagonists, Addy, Phoebe, and Nate, elevated the plot and were the right choices for a few reasons. I thought Addy’s point of view was powerful because of her romantic history and fear of Jake after almost being killed by him, Phoebe was powerful because she was secretly struggling the most out of any character, and Nate’s perspective just gave me pure joy because of how much he and his family had changed for the better since book one. Overall, the characters worked well together and heightened the plot a lot.
This book was simply fun to read. I wouldn’t say it had any mind-boggling revelations, but I enjoyed sitting down with it, and it felt like a good closing to the trilogy. I think it deserves a full five stars, because it was very well-written and well-thought out, even though it still couldn’t quite compare to the experience of reading book one.